


Living In Our Little Fantasy

by 3KidsInATrenchCoat



Category: Kaleidotrope (Podcast)
Genre: (i'm a bad judge of these things), Drew POV, Fluff and Humor, Hal and Drew are besties change my mind, M/M, Missing Scenes, basically just all of kaleidotrope from drew's perspective, blatant misuse of chapter titles, i think, simply because it amuses the author, that barely relate to the content, there's a lot of internal monolouging, which is just a fancy way of saying i made stuff up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3KidsInATrenchCoat/pseuds/3KidsInATrenchCoat
Summary: "Drop it," he told the squirrel sternly.The squirrel did not drop it."C'mon, mate, give it up."The squirrel did not. Instead, it chirped at him, then hopped off the bench and scurried across the quad, sandwich clamped firmly in its mouth.He didn't even have the presence of mind to chase after it, he just sat there in shock. The rain kept pouring, and the students around him kept trudging, and Drew suddenly felt very, very alone.Or: Drew's inner monologue during the main plot of Kaleidotrope
Relationships: Drew/Harrison (Kaleidotrope)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 13





	1. I'm cold and I'm wet and I'm catching the flu, but you're very pretty and I think I like you

**Author's Note:**

> hiiiiiiii  
> Welcome to my first attempt to write for this fandom! There's simply not enough content here, which is a right shame, and I'm gonna do my best to dump works in here. Enjoy!  
> Title from [Tropicana](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKCca_2jqgM) by Caleb Blair

It had been raining for close to a week and a half now. The sky, dreary and dark, hadn't given the slightest suggestion of blue, just gray clouds as far as the eye could see. 

And Drew had been loving it. 

He'd always adored rainy days, as an aesthetic thing. The sound of rain lashing against the roof was his favorite thing to fall asleep to. He loved curling up on the sofa with a mug of tea, content to just exist in the cozy bubble of his apartment. 

Today, though, he'd forgone the sofa in favor of a soaked park bench. A decision he was starting to regret, honestly. His trousers were soaked through. Water dripped from his hair, slipping down his nose and blurring the ink in his notebook. His glasses had fogged up twice. One of his socks squished against the inside of a remarkably wet shoe. 

In short, he was not having a Good Time. 

The other students weren't helping. He'd come out here with high hopes, expecting to observe their varying reactions to the deluge. He'd wanted something poetic for his column, something about the different reactions of Sidlesmith's student body. But they'd all reacted the same; turning up their coats, ducking their heads, and scurrying across the quad as fast as the wet cement would allow. 

No one stopped to splash in the puddles. No one turned their face to the sky and reveled in the feeling of rain on skin. No one bent down to save the worms on the sidewalk. No one gave any indication of emotion other than "miserable."

Drew was starting to feel quite miserable himself. 

A raindrop snuck its way down his collar, and that did it. He was done here. Everyone was so wrapped up in their own lives that they couldn't _see_ anything. Not one another, not the rain, not the worms, nothing. There wasn't any

He reached over for his lunchsack, and got a handful of fur instead. 

Most definitely not shrieking, Drew scrambled backward, nearly falling off the bench. A scraggly red squirrel sat in place of his paper bag. For an instant, they just stared at each other. Then the squirrel dived into the bag, reappearing with his sandwich in its mouth. 

"Drop it," he told the squirrel sternly. 

The squirrel did not drop it. 

"C'mon, mate, give it up."

The squirrel did not. Instead, it chirped at him, then hopped off the bench and scurried across the quad, sandwich clamped firmly in its mouth. 

He didn't even have the presence of mind to chase after it, he just sat there in shock. The rain kept pouring, and the students around him kept trudging, and Drew suddenly felt very, _very_ alone.

Ten minutes later found Drew, (soggy, hungry, and decidedly annoyed), standing alone in the center of his bedroom. The mirror over the dresser reflected a sorry picture. Short hair plastered against his face. Water speckled glasses perched atop his dripping nose, t-shirt soaked despite having worn his coat, he looked...pathetic. 

Add to that the fact that the first thing he's talked to in several days was a fucking _squirrel..._

 _Jesus,_ he was a mess. 

He took a shower, which helped with the chill but not the misery. The email notification didn't help either. 

It was Hal, informing him that she'd found him a new co-host. And though she didn't say it outright, Drew could read between the lines. If this didn't work out, the show was done. He'd lose his half-hour of air time. All his hard work would be for naught. 

He was fine, though. He'd known the end was coming for a while now. In a couple weeks' time, he'll have lost the show, and he was _fine_ with that. 

The rest of the day passed in a series of mechanical motions. His hair hadn't had the time to properly dry before his afternoon classes, so he'd spent the later half of the day trying to prevent the drips from getting on his notebooks and computer. 

He hadn't succeeded. 

Collar still damp, Drew slogged back through the rain to the studio. And, as if his day hadn't been shitty enough already, the show before him had unplugged all the damn mic cords, which was just. _great_. 

A sharp tap startled him so bad he almost hit his head on the desk. He'd crawled under it to reconnect the finicky mic cable, so he hadn't seen Hal when she walked in. 

"I've got some...bad news," she said. 

"What." Drew didn't even bother to get up off the ground. 

Hal bit her lip. "Your co-host is running late."

"What?" 

"Your co-host. He just texted me. He's running late."

Drew bonked his head against the leg of the desk. Of course. Of course his co-host wasn't going to be there. Just the rotten cherry on top of an already awful cake. 

"Fantastic," he said, more to himself than anything. "We're on in five, and I can't play music, so what am I supposed to do?"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Hal said unhelpfully. 

So his new co-host was...unique. Entertaining? Vibrant. All sunny smiles and enthusiastic replies. He'd burst into the studio wearing a bright yellow raincoat, for God's sake! After he'd been several minutes late because he saw a sheep? And he'd given himself a fake name, and he'd brought cookies, and he hadn't gotten frustrated when Drew had snarked, and he'd insisted on calling the listeners _hearers_!

Drew had taken a detour into the park on his way back home almost unwittingly. He needed time to process it all, and he didn't care that he was getting soaked again. 

He'd gone into today's broadcast expecting it to be his last. He'd braced for the inevitable tension that came with a new co-host, for Hal's quickly smothered frown and the awkward goodbye at the end that meant his co-host _wouldn't_ be coming back. 

But today had been...good. 

Better than that, actually, today was _fun_. 

He, Drew, had had _fun_ on today's show. So much so that he'd forgotten about his damp hair and shitty day. He'd gotten so wrapped up in their debate about Harry Potter, and the way that Harrison had _smiled_ at him when he'd eaten the Samoa, that he felt more optimistic about the state of things. The world didn't look quite so dreary anymore. 

_"See you Thursday!"_ Harrison had said. 

Thursday. 

That implied that Harrison wanted to come back to the show. And he'd asked after it, he hadn't needed Hal to coerce him into another show. 

Harrison had volunteered to come back and do another show. With Drew. 

And that thought alone was enough to make Drew's stomach flip over with nervous excitement. 

He opened his journal to a blank page and wrote, stream-of-consciousness-style until he'd unloaded all the fluffy feelings from his brain and into the paper. 

It was only after he'd frantically scrawled in the third page that he realized the rain wasn't smearing the ink anymore. The sky wasn't clear, but Drew could see the first few rays of sun peeking through the dark clouds. 

And if _that_ wasn't poetic, he didn't know what was. 


	2. I think I might be in love?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Drew realizes he /might/ have a crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so remember how i said this was mostly canon-compliant? yeah, this chapter is why. I guess it takes place between eps 2 and 3? maybe? time is weird

Was it too early to call this a crush?

He'd only known Harrison for two days. Barely even two full hours, if you were being picky about it.

And yet. Drew caught himself preparing little stories to tell Harrison the next time he saw him. He'd walked through the grocery store and idly wondered what type of muffins were his favorite. A flash of pink would catch his eye and he'd perk up, expecting a bright smile to follow it.

It was ridiculous. It was distracting. It was anything but productive.

But he couldn't stop doing it.

In just two short hours, Harrison had somehow managed to flip Drew's entire world on its head. He'd saved the show, for starters, something Drew had been literally incapable of doing on his own. His smile was contagious, his mere presence enough to take the edge off

Harrison was unlike any other person Drew had met. His pink-haired co-host had taken one look at Drew, (sarcastic, bitter, jaded Drew), and just...ran with it. He didn't demand anything from Drew. He didn't try and force him out of his shell, he didn't get upset when Drew snarked, he didn't even bat an eye when Drew consistently shot down each of his deejay names. All he did was sit there, smile never dimming, looking at Drew as if he were the only thing in the world that mattered.

Drew looked forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays now, with a ferocious energy that surprised him. It didn't feel like work, really, not now that Harrison was there.

Hal, the traitorous best friend she was, picked up on the change almost instantly. 

"Soooo when are you gonna pop the question?" she asked, flopping dramatically into the armchair across from Drew.

"What?" 

Hal rolled her eyes. "Don't play dumb, English. Harrison."

"What about him?" 

"Drew."

"What?" Drew gave her his best "I'm innocent" look.

It didn't work. 

Hal laughed, throwing her arms up in triumph. "I knew it! You should see yourself whenever he says literally anything. I swear, your pupils turn into little hearts!"

Drew groaned, burying his reddening cheeks in the sleeves of his jumper. 

"And your voice!" the blonde continued, clearly enjoying his pain. "It goes all disgustingly soft whenever you talk to him!"

"Hal?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Hal laughed again. "Awwww does Drewey have a wittle cwush?" she cooed at him, face contorting into an overexaggerated pout. Drew attempted to kick her under the table, but she had her legs pulled up underneath her and he wasn't able to reach. He settled for tossing a wadded up sticky-note at her instead. When that failed to discourage her, he slumped back in his seat and tapped at the keyboard grumpily. 

"Leave me alone," he whined, "I have stuff to do." 

"Not until you stop making me watch your poorly hidden pining unfold in my own studio."

Drew gave her a Look. "I am not _pining_."

"Suuuure you're not." she shifted so she could reach his arm. Patting it lightly, she said, "Just don't wait too long, ok?"

It was Thursday again, and Drew had a headache. There wasn't any clear cause for it either, today was just too much. The sun was too bright, people were talking too loud, and it hurt to look at literally anything. He'd written exactly three words for the column before slamming his computer shut and slumping miserably against its closed lid.

Hal had offered him some Advil, which he refused more out of stubbornness than anything. Then she'd called him an idiot but brought him tea anyway, which was really just Hal in a nutshell.

And now he was here, in the studio, pressing his forehead into the desk. Hal had set up the mics for him, which was sweet, and now he was _really_ starting to regret not taking her up on that Advil.

He heard the outer doors open, heard Harrison's drawn out hello and Hal's muted response.

The door to the studio swung open, a bit more gently than the outer one. Drew didn't bother to lift his head from the desk. Harrison had seen him spill tea all over himself in the quad the other day; this wasn't much more embarrassing.

"Hey," Harrison said. He kept his voice quiet and Drew _loved_ him for it, even as the noise shot a spark of pain through his skull. "Hal said you weren't feeling good?"

Drew grunted. "I'm feeling absolutely stellar, which is why I've decided to meld my forehead with this table here."

"I'm sorry, that sucks." His voice was closer, somewhere to Drew's right. "Anything I can do?"

"Mmmph."

Something clinked down on the table near his elbow. Drew peeked an eye open to find a glass of water and an Advil. He took both gratefully. Now was not the time for pride.

"You still ok to do the show?"

" 'M fine." Drew sat up and gave Harrison what he hoped was a smile but probably turned out as a grimace. "Let's get this over with."

Halfway through the text-in-quarter hour, Drew was regretting his decision. The headache had morphed into a full pounding in his skull, and he was struggling to focus on the questions.

He could feel Harrison's eyes on him, but every time he looked over, Harrison's gaze was locked firmly on his phone.

"Listeners," Harrison said, "we appear to be experiencing a few technical difficulties, if you'll bear with us for a moment..."

"What?" Drew glanced quickly from Harrison to Hal. Neither of them looked back.

"Right, ok," Harrison said, still not looking at Drew, "we're gonna take a short break, so, everyone, this is _Tropicana_ by Caleb Blair."

"What's wrong?" Drew blinked at Harrison, who'd stopped fiddling with his phone and tilted back in his chair as the opening notes played.

Harrison shrugged. "You looked like you needed a break."

Drew squinted at him, turning the words over in his mind. They didn't have songs lined up and ready to go, because it wasn't a music show anymore. Which meant that skipping out to a song needed at least 15 seconds of prep, and both the host and Hal needed to be on the same page to time the transition right. Add to that the time it took to find the track itself, and the two of them had most likely been conspiring to do this since the show started. All for the sake of Drew's comfort.

Then he had to blink again, this time to dispel the tears that sprung to his eyes at the thought. 

_What did I do to deserve them?_

"Two minutes," Hal warned them.

Drew dropped his head against the desk again. "Thank you, two," he parroted sarcastically.

"You doing ok?" Harrison asked him. He'd pitched his voice softer again, and Drew was seriously gonna have to do something drastic like _kiss him_ if he kept being so damn considerate. "Need anything?"

"Actually..." Drew slid his phone across the desk. "Could you read the rest of the messages? My brain keeps trying to eject itself from my skull whenever I look at the screen."

"Of course!" Harrison flashed that thousand-watt smile at him, swiping the phone quickly from Drew's grasp. "Are you sure you don't wanna just go home? I can handle the rest of the show from here."

"I'm fine, Harrison," Drew said, the words coming out harsher than he'd intended.

Several emotions flitted across Harrison's face, too fast for Drew to decipher. The he reached out, surprising Drew by clasping him briefly on the shoulder. 

"Alright," he said. "Let me know if you need another break, though, ok?"

Drew found himself blinking back tears again. Harrison's hand was heavy on his shoulder, the warmth from his fingers bleeding into Drew's skin. It took all of Drew's willpower not to lean forward and rest his head on Harrison's shoulder, to tuck himself under his cohost's arm and sleep for a million years. 

Maybe he _should_ go home, this was rapidly getting out of hand. 

"Ok?" Harrison asked again, shaking Drew's shoulder slightly.

Drew blinked, fighting his way through the sludge in his brain to focus on Harrison. "Ok."

"Good." There was a fierce determination in Harrison's eyes as he removed his hand. "I'll hold you to that."

The rest of the show went uneventfully. To be honest, Drew didn't remember most of it, his attention dipping in and out on random intervals. Luckily, Harrison was there, going on long tangents and running with what little banter Drew was able to give him. It was absolutely stunning to behold, or at least it would've been, if Drew had been paying attention to his cohost instead of focusing on not snapping his own microphone in half.

"Thanks for listening, and we'll see- well, _hear_ you on Tuesday!" 

The telltale click of the mics muting and the ensuing silence was a blessed relief. 

Drew slumped back against the desk in relief. "Oh thank god," he muttered. 

"You ok?" Harrison asked. 

"Mmmph. Fine." he pulled himself back into a sitting position and reached out to begin unplugging the mics. A pair of hands batted his away. 

"I don't think so, mister."

"What?"

Harrison nudged him away from the desk. "I said no. You're in no state to be doing anything right now, so. Go home. Hal and I got this."

"Harrison, I-"

"Drew."

They stared at each other for a moment, locked in a silent battle of wills. 

"Fine," Drew said at last, throwing up his hands. "I guess I'll just...be going then."

Harrison beamed. "Fantastic. I'll see you Tuesday?"

"Of course." 

_I wouldn't miss it for the world_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! i'm gonna take a little break bc holidays and finals are happening all at once, but i think i've got at least one more chapter in me. my current projection is early January :) 
> 
> stay safe, i love you all, and thanks so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> come scream about podcasts w/ me on tumblr @ [litners-lending-library :)](https://litners-lending-library.tumblr.com/)


End file.
